SMC 33

The present volume contains twelve chapters authored by specialists of Asian, African and European manuscript cultures reflecting on the cohesion of written artefacts, particularly manuscripts. Assuming that ‘codicological units’ exist in every manuscript culture and that they are usually composed of discrete elements (such as clay tablets, papyrus sheets, bamboo slips, parchment bifolios, palm leaves), the issue of the cohesion of the constituents is a general one. The volume presents a series of case studies on devices and strategies adopted to achieve this cohesion by manuscript cultures distant in space (from China to West Africa) and time (from the third millennium bce to the present). This comparative view provides the frame for the understanding of a phenomenon that appears to be of essential importance for the study of the structure of written artefacts. Regardless of the way in which cohesion is realised, all strategies and devices that allow the constituents to be kept together are subsumed under the term ‘binding’. Thus, it is possible to highlight similarities, convergences, and unique physical and technical methods adopted by various manuscript cultures to face a common challenge.

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FrontmatterI

ContentsV

Tied and Bound: A Tight Preface1
Alessandro Bausi

Overviews of Traditions

Binding Cuneiform Tablets in One Unit11
Cécile Michel

Bindings of Ancient Chinese Bamboo and Wood Scrolls39
Thies Staack

Chains, Links, and Loops: Towards a Deeper Understanding of the Sewing Structure in Eastern Mediterranean Bookbinding73
Georgios Boudalis

Bindings, Bags and Boxes: Sewn and Unsewn Manuscript Formats in the Islamic World121
Karin Scheper

Strategies for Binding Pothi Manuscripts155
Giovanni Ciotti

Guṭakās from North-Western India: An Introduction to Their Structures and Materials191
Amélie Couvrat Desvergnes

Features of Binding

Papyrus Rolls as Archives: The tomoi sunkollēsimoi251
Eliana Dal Sasso

Loose-leaf Islamic Manuscripts of West Africa: Retention, Adaptation or Invention?285
Dmitry Bondarev

Legacy of Binding

Bound to Be Rebound: Fates of Latin Manuscripts in Late Antiquity303
Serena Ammirati

Bound and Unbound: A Chinese Codex from Dunhuang and Its Pieces321
Imre Galambos

Binding or Rebinding at the St Catherine's Monastery of Sinai339
Nikolas Sarris

Contributors372

Indexes

Index of Written Artefacts375

General Index383